Princeton Departments Feel the Squeeze From Budget Cuts

As Princeton implements 5% to 10% permanent budget cuts over the next three years, the effects are just starting to be felt.

Professor Szymon Rusinkiewicz, chair of the Department of Computer Science, said that his overall impression is that chairs of academic departments at Princeton are accepting of the changes, but if further cuts are necessary, “that’s when things start getting really painful.”

To determine the impact so far, PAW reached out to academic departments, residential colleges, athletics, the Office of Undergraduate Research, the Office of International Programs, and the Frist Health Center, many of which did not respond or referred PAW to University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill.

“We don’t have anything to add beyond the public announcements at this time,” Morrill told PAW via email in September.

Possibly the most visible cut has been the cancellation of Wintersession, the two-week period before the spring semester during which free, noncredit workshops and other activities had been offered since 2021.

In addition, the University announced undergraduate dorms will be closed to students over winter break, except for those who receive special approval.

Wintersession was “a uniquely Princeton thing,” where people could teach and try things “in a way that you can’t, really, throughout the rest of the year,” said past participant Alistair Wright ’27.

Brian Hegarty ’27, who also took part in Wintersession, said it was “lovely,” but that “it felt like an underdeveloped asset, and that not enough people were there to actually take advantage of what was being offered.”

Another loss is the SCRAP Lab (Sustainable Composting Research at Princeton), which has been composting campus waste since 2018. Operations have been paused for the academic year due to the University’s soft hiring freeze, which prevented a successful transition out of the project’s pilot phase, the lab announced in September.

In the computer science department, Rusinkiewicz said, aside from hosting fewer social events and giving out less swag, one of the most noticeable changes has been hiring fewer students as graders and course assistants. Faculty are taking on those responsibilities instead.

“We’re not cutting that program entirely, but we are trying to cut the amount that we spend,” he said.

Rusinkiewicz said there were conversations with administrative staff, tenure-track faculty, and teaching faculty to help determine priorities, which include supporting graduate students who are already enrolled; funding for faculty, especially junior faculty; and areas of research in which federal funding has become more difficult to obtain.

The department enrolled the same number of graduate students as it expected to prior to the budget cuts, but decisions were made “before we really realized the complete scale of what was going to happen with the federal government,” Rusinkiewicz said. “And in light of that, we now think that maybe in future years we will have smaller cohorts,” adding that he believes that may be the case across the University.

Rusinkiewicz also expects faculty will spend more time fundraising.

Princeton is not the only school facing tough decisions ahead of budget shortfalls. Inside Higher Ed reported universities such as Northwestern, Stanford, and Columbia have each cut hundreds of positions, while Johns Hopkins laid off more than 2,000 employees. An email to all Princeton employees in May said the University was “not currently planning an across-the-board reduction in staff, and our goal is to minimize layoffs, in part by using unfilled vacancies as a bridge to natural attrition …” but also warned some staff positions would be eliminated.

This semester, multiple branches of the Princeton University Library scaled back hours, including the Architecture, East Asian, Lewis Science (and its Makerspace), and Mendel Music libraries, to be “in alignment with the University’s cost-saving measures amid current budget uncertainty,” said Stephanie Oster, publicity manager for library communications.

The updated hours reflect quantitative and qualitative data, as well as input from the heads of each library, according to Oster. Library administrators are monitoring feedback and usage patterns to determine if further adjustments are necessary and will make changes accordingly.

“Our aim is to improve operational efficiency with minimal impact on our patrons,” Oster said.

Articles in The Daily Princetonian reported that all campus libraries aside from Firestone have been told to cut student staff hours by 50%, and the Murray-Dodge Café, run by the Office of Religious Life, briefly cut hours for its student workers, before restoring its midnight closing time in mid-September. Morrill told the Prince that departments and offices are independently making decisions on student hiring.

It’s not all bad news. The Undergraduate Student Government “increased its funding allocation to the Projects Board this semester to expand financial support for student organizations,” according to Ian Deas, associate dean of undergraduate students.

This summer, Princeton increased financial aid for undergraduates; most families earning up to $150,000 a year will not have to pay tuition or room and board, and most families earning up to $250,000 will pay no tuition.

As of late August, funding had been restored for about half of the federal research grants that were disrupted this year, but according to President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, Princeton is not changing tack on the budget as a result.

“We are going to continue to protect and invest in Princeton’s core priorities at the same time that we are making reductions in what we do,” Eisgruber told PAW.

David Montgomery ’83 and Hallie Graham ’27 contributed reporting to this story.